Install Brotli (mod_brotli) on Apache Web Server

Brotli compression is the new replacement for Gzip and mod_deflate. Days ago we wrote a tutorial on how to install brotli on Nginx web server, and today we will try to explore a way to install brotli compression on Apache web server.

Let’s move to the fun part.

Install Apache Mod_Brotli on Apache

In order to have brotli installed and working on your server, you must have this requirements present on your server:

• Plain CentOS/RHEL or Ubuntu box (no control panel installed).
• Apache installed and working normally.
• HTTPS enabled on your websites, as Brotli doesn’t work o http based websites.
• Brotli linux binary installed on your server.

Installing Brotli binary

For Ubuntu

apt-get install brotli

For CentOS/RHEL

Install the cmake compiler:

yum install cmake -y

Download the brotli library:

wget https://github.com/google/brotli/archive/master.zip

Extract it:

unzip master.zip
cd brotli-master

Build and install:

mkdir out && cd out
../configure-cmake
make
make test
make install

This will install the brotli binary, as you see below:

[[email protected]:~]brotli --version
brotli 1.0.1
[[email protected]:~]brotli --help
Usage: brotli [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Options:
 -# compression level (0-9)
 -c, --stdout write on standard output
 -d, --decompress decompress
 -f, --force force output file overwrite
 -h, --help display this help and exit
 -j, --rm remove source file(s)
 -k, --keep keep source file(s) (default)
 -n, --no-copy-stat do not copy source file(s) attributes
 -o FILE, --output=FILE output file (only if 1 input file)
 -q NUM, --quality=NUM compression level (0-11)
 -t, --test test compressed file integrity
 -v, --verbose verbose mode
 -w NUM, --lgwin=NUM set LZ77 window size (0, 10-24) (default:22)
 window size = 2**NUM - 16
 0 lets compressor choose the optimal value
 -S SUF, --suffix=SUF output file suffix (default:'.br')
 -V, --version display version and exit
 -Z, --best use best compression level (11) (default)
Simple options could be coalesced, i.e. '-9kf' is equivalent to '-9 -k -f'.
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
All arguments after '--' are treated as files.
[[email protected]:~]

Build the Brotli Apache module

Install the dev packages, which are needed to build the module:

On Ubuntu:

apt-get install apache2-dev

CentOS  RHEL users should use:

yum install httpd-devel

Get mod_brotli & compile

Let’s clone the apache-mod-brotli repo & compile the module, as you see in the next steps:

git clone --depth=1 --recursive https://github.com/kjdev/apache-mod-brotli.git
 cd apache-mod-brotli
 ./autogen.sh
 ./configure
 make

The result will be a .so file located inside the .libs directory.

Let’s store this module inside Apache directory modules:

Ubuntu users:

install -D .libs/mod_brotli.so /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_brotli.so -m 644

CentOS/RHEL users:

cp .libs/mod_brotli.so /usr/lib64/httpd/modules/mod_brotli.so -fv

Configure Brotli Module

For CentOS/RHEL

Create a brotli.conf file

nano -w /etc/httpd/conf.d/brotli.conf

Place this inside:

<IfModule brotli_module>
 BrotliCompressionLevel 10
 BrotliWindowSize 22
 AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI text/html text/plain text/css text/xml
 AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI text/css
 AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI application/x-javascript application/javascript
 AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI application/rss+xml
 AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI application/xml
 AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI application/json
 </IfModule>

Save the file and restart httpd:

systemctl start httpd.service

That’s all for CentOS/RHEL users.

For Ubuntu users

Ubuntu will require to use a2enmod module in order to activate this module inside Apache. Follow the next steps:

Create a load file by running this comnands:

cd /etc/apache2/mods-available
echo "LoadModule brotli_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_brotli.so" > brotli.load

Configure Brotli

nano -w brotli.conf

Paste this configuration inside:

<IfModule brotli_module>
 BrotliCompressionLevel 10
 BrotliWindowSize 22
 AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI text/html text/plain text/css text/xml
 AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI text/css
 AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI application/x-javascript application/javascript
 AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI application/rss+xml
 AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI application/xml
 AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI application/json
 </IfModule>

Use a2enmod to enable the mod_brotli module and then restart Apache2:

a2enmod brotli
service apache2 restart

That’s all, at this time mod_brotli should be installed and working properly on both CentOS / RHEL, but also on Ubuntu Linux.

We’ve used a basic brotli configuration that includes a good balance between compression level and accepted mime types.

you can always extend the configuration to match your needs by reading the official Apache mod_brotli docs.

Check mod_brotli is working

The best way to check if mod_brotli is working is by using this simple Brotli Test, introduce the URL and wait for the result.

Otherwise, you can also check your server headers with curl -I www.yoursite.com to see if the Accept-encoding: br appear at the end.